8 Miles Walker, The History of English Spelling 



alternative symbols to represent the digraphs. Our Poet 

 Laureate has compiled a system of symbols that could be used 

 for this purpose. 



The Simplified Spelling Society's Scheme. 



i . The same sound is always represented by the same letter 

 or letters : eni, jepardi, greev, leep. 



2. Consonants have their usual values. C (except in ch), q, 



and x are not used. 



3. Letters not pronounced are not written, and a consonant is 



not doubled to indicate a short vowel : dout, lam, aktiv, 

 leter, nee. 



4. Wherever the z sound (as distinguished from the s) is 



heard it is written : praiz, windz. 







Vowel Sounds. 







a 



: hat, plat 



y : stylish, tym 



au 



: haul, aul 



e 



: men, meni 



oi : oil, boi 



ce 



: fee, feel 



i 



: bit, bizi 



aa : bazaar, haaf 



eu 



: eufoni, neu 







: hot, whot 



ai : wait, grait 



00 



: boon, troo 



u 



: but, bruther 



ee : keen, eet 



ou 



: found, drou 



00 



: book, kood 









It is interesting to follow the history of the spelling of a 

 number of words that are to-day spelt in an irregular manner, 

 and to see how far the irregular spelling is justifiable. This 

 can easily be done, for the history of each word is given in 

 the Oxford Dictionary. In a very large number of cases it 

 will be found that modern spelling is entirely unjustifiable. 

 It is true that the w r ord often sprang from a root that was 

 sounded and spelt in a way widely different from the present 

 form. If we are prepared to change the word back to its 

 original sound and spelling, that might be a reasonable pro- 

 position ; but to bring into the present word letters that it had 

 when it was differently pronounced is altogether unjustifiable, 

 and in any case we are inconsistent, because we put in some 

 of the letters that the old word had, but not all of them. 

 Moreover, in the course of the history of the word it has 

 usually gone through so many changes that there is no 

 particular reason (from an etymological point of view) for 

 fixing upon the present spelling. It would be very much 

 more logical to fix upon a phonetic spelling, particularly 

 because it has often happened in the history of words that 

 the phonetic spelling was at one time accepted. 



